2016 Under-20 Rugby World Championships - Manchester UK

[Seymour Butz]

Note to ARU - Why should we have to fill in the gaps and guess?

You have a section of your website dedicated to U20's. Nothing posted since the JWC. Since that time a new national competition has been created, franchise based squads have been assembled and are training and national coaches have been appointed/reappointed.

Not a single post covering any of this.

NSW Waratah media unit must be monitoring Gagger:

http://www.waratahs.com.au/Waratahs...ID/16978/The-dawn-of-the-next-generation.aspx

 

[TOCC]

QRU haven't publicly released the U20's squad but there's a few snippets out there of who is in it

DEFENDING Premier Rugby champions Souths Magpies have recruited four Australian schoolboys to build on an already successful program.
The club has welcomed young talents Jack Farrell, Liam Moseley, Jayden Ngananu and Kalala Meni to Chipsy Wood Oval, to boost its Colts squad for next season.
“They’re all contracted with the Queensland Reds under-20s and, without a doubt, I feel they can go on and play at the top level in the future,” he said.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/quest...604753835?sv=4d34bb4db015671ceca059fdfc40e958

 

[LMU]

Tournament dates from 7 - 25 June 2016 and the draw is here;

http://www.worldrugby.org/u20/fixtu...=01112015+EM:+U20+Champs+Tickets#nearestMatch

 

[Highlander35]

Good opportunity for you guys to get out of the cycle of 5th place.

 

[LMU]

Pool A
Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Georgia.
Pool B
Australia, Scotland, England, Italy.
Pool C
France, Argentina, South Africa, Japan.

I don't think there is any easier games in our pool for next year. England will be huge again and Scotland/Italy will be tough matches.

 

[Seymour Butz]

Courtesy of Rugby News

Waratahs Gen Blue coach Tim Rapp has released his 2016 training squad ahead of next year's U20's National Championship.

The 63-man squad, made up predominantly of 18,19 and 20-year olds, met for the first time on Tuesday and will train through to the 22nd of December before breaking for Christmas.

The squad will return to Moore Park on the 12th of January and is expected to play trials against NSW Country, Randwick and Sydney Uni sides in the lead up to the national championships.

Seems there might be some trials going on this week for the NSW squad of 63. Not sure if internal or v another squad. Anyone have any details on whatz going down- date, time, location. opposition?

 

[Lee Grant]

^^^^^^^^^

Next week Thurs 17 Dec at the Bus Loop starting about 4.15 pm.

It's internal and, in effect will be a selection trial. Tim Rapp told me yesterday that these things are important - that some lads train well but their play is not at the same level, whereas some guys play well but don't stand out as trainers.

He has to see them play at the same time against their competitors.
.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Hope the weather is kind next Thursday, and not a 35 degree + scorcher.

As far as the sun is concerned, the game will be at 3:15pm. Something about Mad Dogs and Englishmen.

 

[Lee Grant]

^^^^^^

Rapp told me 4.30 pm and I have it recorded as part of an interview; so I mentioned 4.15 in case they start early - but maybe Rapp misspoke.
.

 

[I like to watch]

Lee,I think you'll find Big Arse was referring to standard time not daylight savings,in regard to player comfort at that time of day...

 

[Happy to Chat]

Any idea/insider info, of what's happening at the Reds u20?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lee Grant]

Good call "I like" - I should have read it more carefully.

PS - there is a blog on the Waratahs Under 20s here:

http://goo.gl/QJFx7z​

Give it a click.
.

 

[Seymour Butz]

Leigh, in your blog, you say:
"In 2016 there will be no national tournament but the Super Rugby Under 20s will play each other once and there will be a final in April. The aim is to have these games as curtain-raisers to Super Rugby matches but there are no fixtures listed yet and the Super Rugby Under 20 competition itself is not yet official."

Do you mean the week of round robin games in Canberra in March is not on this year, where NSW, Qld, Aust Barbarians Tonga, Fiji, etc, get to play each other?

Do you mean that NSW and Qld Under20s sides will play against the Super Rugby Under 20s teams as curtain raisers instead, and the National Under 20s side will be chosen by selectors watching those curtain raisers?

 

[Lee Grant]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yes to both paragraphs, though the fixtures are not finalised and nor is the competition itself confirmed.

I think it is at the nudge, nudge, wink, wink stage though - and the announcement of it may wait until the official launch of 2016 Super Rugby competition.

But some U20 home games may have to be played when the senior team is away or has the bye.

It's tricky. The Super U20 final is scheduled for Apr 2nd (the Aussie U20 team is named on Apr 6), which means that all the games have to be completed by the weekend before - which is Week 5 of Super Rugby.

The Waratah U20 trials finish the weekend before Week 1 of Super Rugby, and those of the other U20 teams probably do too; so we are talking about five Super U20 weekends of two U20 matches apiece before the final.


Incidentally Tim Rapp told me today that Chris Malone is the Waratah U20 coach; so I asked Rapp what he was.

He said he was Malone's bitch. I couldn't think of a follow-up question.
.

 

[Highlander35]

Round 1:
Brumbies v Canes (ACT bye)
Tahs v Reds (NSW v QLD)
Force v Rebels (WA v VIC)

Round 2:
Brumbies v Tahs (ACT v NSW)
Reds v Force (QLD v WA)
Bulls v Rebels (VIC bye)

Round 3:
Force v Brumbies (WA v ACT)
Rebels v Reds (VIC v QLD)
Tahs bye (NSW Bye)

Round 4:
Canes v Force
Tahs v Highlanders
Sunwolves v Rebels
Reds v Blues
Stormers v Brumbies

Round 5:
Rebels v Highlanders
Reds v Tahs
Chiefs v Force
Cheetahs v Brumbies

If the first 3 rounds pick themselves. The remaining fixtures would be:

VIC v NSW
VIC v ACT
NSW v WA
QLD v ACT

Then that should be

Round 4: NSW v WA, ACT v VIC (non-aligned game), QLD bye
Round 5: VIC v NSW, QLD v ACT, WA bye

or

Round 4: NSW v VIC, QLD v ACT, WA bye
Round 5: VIC v ACT, NSW v WA (non-aligned game), QLD bye.

There's more permutations, but those look the most likely. Any other confirmation on Fixtures I've missed?

 

[Happy to Chat]

Round 1:
Brumbies v Canes (ACT bye)
Tahs v Reds (NSW v QLD)
Force v Rebels (WA v VIC)

Round 2:
Brumbies v Tahs (ACT v NSW)
Reds v Force (QLD v WA)
Bulls v Rebels (VIC bye)

Round 3:
Force v Brumbies (WA v ACT)
Rebels v Reds (VIC v QLD)
Tahs bye (NSW Bye)

Round 4:
Canes v Force
Tahs v Highlanders
Sunwolves v Rebels
Reds v Blues
Stormers v Brumbies

Round 5:
Rebels v Highlanders
Reds v Tahs
Chiefs v Force
Cheetahs v Brumbies

If the first 3 rounds pick themselves. The remaining fixtures would be:

VIC v NSW
VIC v ACT
NSW v WA
QLD v ACT

Then that should be

Round 4: NSW v WA, ACT v VIC (non-aligned game), QLD bye
Round 5: VIC v NSW, QLD v ACT, WA bye

or

Round 4: NSW v VIC, QLD v ACT, WA bye
Round 5: VIC v ACT, NSW v WA (non-aligned game), QLD bye.

There's more permutations, but those look the most likely. Any other confirmation on Fixtures I've missed?

I heard it all starts in round 2 (5 March) of S18 with one or two that will not be played as curtain raiser games. Not sure how that works out for all the teams.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Highlander35]

Well, Round 6 has:

Highlanders v Force.
Brumbies v Chiefs
Tahs v Rebels
Reds Bye

Fiddling around would give fixtures:

Round 2:
ACT v NSW
QLD v WA
VIC Bye

Round 3:
WA v ACT
VIC v QLD
NSW Bye

Round 4
WA v NSW (No Super game)
ACT v VIC (No Super Game)
QLD Bye

Round 5
QLD v NSW
VIC v WA
ACT Bye

Round 6
NSW v VIC
ACT v QLD
WA Bye

Obviously complete speculation at this stage, but I'm a season behind on Arrow, so this is a fun thing to have on the 2nd screen.

 

[Seymour Butz]

http://www.waratahs.com.au/Waratahs...eID/16625/RAPP-TO-JOIN-U20-COACHING-TEAM.aspx
Did we already know that Chris Hickey s doing most of the actual coaching, while Tim Rapp takes a bit of a back seat, given his new Australian Under 20s assistant coach role?

Incidentally Tim Rapp told me today that Chris Malone is the Waratah U20 coach; so I asked Rapp what he was.

He said he was Malone's bitch. I couldn't think of a follow-up question.

So, what is Chris Hickey's formal role with the Waratahs U20's, if not coach?

 

[Lee Grant]

Well, Round 6 has:

Round 6
NSW v VIC
ACT v QLD
WA Bye

There can't be any U20 games in Rd 6 of Super Rugby: the final is scheduled for the weekend of Rd 6 of Super Rugby - April 1st and 2nd. It can't be later because the Australian U20 team has to be announced on April 6th.

At least that is what is on a spreadsheet I received. It also listed the Waratahs' U20 trial games as finishing the weekend before Rd 1 of Super Rugby - and therefore the Under 20 rounds will have to start on Rd 1 of Super Rugby and finish on Rd 5 of Super Rugby - as I mentioned in my previous post.

There is no trick in organising ten games in five rounds - just have two every weekend. The trick is to work out how to maximise the number of games that can be curtain-raisers to a Super Rugby match.

But maybe that spreadsheet is out of date, or maybe there will be no final, or maybe the Aus U20 team will be named later, or maybe the U20 trial games have to be brought forward and the Super Rugby U20 start a week before the senior Super Rugby.

And someone said it starts on the weekend of Rd 2 of Super Rugby !!!

It's all with the ARU now I suppose so we will have to wait and see - it's no use asking me any questions because that is all I know.
.

 

[Lee Grant]

So, what is Chris Hickey's formal role with the Waratahs U20's, if not coach?

Where is it mentioned he has a role? Anybody have a link?? He certainly hasn't been at training.
.